Cyber-China

For geography tech-geeks, Danny O’Brien’s weekly Wired column in the Irish Times is essential reading. His work often highlights some fascinating aspects of the place of technology in contemporary society, aspects which geographers can often use to develop how they understand technological geographies. This week O’Brien draws attention to China’s so-called ‘patriotic hackers’: the “roving gang of justified vigilantes, attacking and taking down websites that demean or criticise China.” In Cyber-China, these hackers “defend the honour of their homeland” and even enrol in “hacker schools”! It’s a further case of the web’s network politics.